Friday, February 3, 2017

Kalliwoda, Johann Wenzel. (1801-1866) Violin concertinos-Overtures.

From my collection.Bought in January 2017.First listen: 3-2-2017.Second listen: 23-2-2017.Label: CPO.Recording dates: January 2011.Recording venue"Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal, Germany.Recording engineer: Michael Morawietz.Running time: 57:30.Classical relevance: Well worth acquiring.Works performed:Overtures: No 3 opus 55 in C major.No. 7 opus 101, in C minor.No. 10 opus 142, in F minor.Violin concertino No. 5 opus 133 in A minor.No. 1 opus 15 in E major.Performed by:Ariadne Daskalakis, Violin.Kölner Akademie, Michael Alexander Willens.Kalliwoda is a composer who carries a lot of expressive and creative music in his baggage. The present CD is a fine example of this. The Concertinos are melodic pearls, and are by no means run of the mill, what sometimes is said about his music, due to his compositional fecundity. He is out to please with gorgeous melodies, and if well performed you get what you might expect, music with a certain classiness to it.Ariadne Daskalakis is a fine violinist, with a beautiful bowing technique, and thus a beautiful tone. Despite all her qualities, not all is as it should be. She shows too much restraint, well, almost cautious in her approach of the music. Kalliwoda does not come natural to her, and that gets out in some inflexible shaping of the melodies, or a certain squareness in her playing. There is a lack of agility, and playfulness, and so you will quick fingered-ness Not really helped by the fact that the tempi are a bit too slow for comfort. That makes the music collapse under the weight of it. This music is not devoid of originality, but it is music mainly to please easy ears, as you might hear in the overtures. To me this music is well worth having, and apart from my observations about the violinist it gave me nevertheless a lot of pleasure. The orchestra sounds fine, detailed, a good front to back image, and well balanced.